UNDER SHELL FIRE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2693, 12 February 1916, Page 13

UNDER SHELL FIRE

FIRST -EXPERIENCE OF A CANADIAN. A youth of nineteen enlisted in the Canadian force, and has been in Belgium now for a month or two. In a letter fc> hjs mother ho gives a. picture—very distinct because it is bo simple—of a bombardment as experienced from tho trenches :— "One day this week on our front we had a. big bombardment. It was verj exciting. One's nerves are strained all tho time. You can hear lliese biir shells coming for about four seconds, and when they are landing close it is awful—not tho actual exploding of tho shell, but tho great strain oil tho iierves when you can hear the thing coining directly towards yor. and pass with a "zip," maybe Oft. nbovo your head and land behind vou, sometimes closo and sometimes a long distance. It is a fine sight watching shells land .about 500 yards away. We could hear the big brutes coming (from miles behind our trenches) as an express train on a frosty night, then on the far slopo we could se6 a flash and a great upheaval of earth, sandbags, planks, etc. The upheaval lias the shape of a huge open fan; then we hear the explosion— and duck for about two seconds. All is quiet (if no other) shell happens to burst), wo hug the' muddy trench side closely and listen—overhead is passing chunks ot' shrapnel, spinning and humming like a machine. This lasts for about'' n second and a half, then we are safe—from that one. Again we hear the twisted hum coming through the air towards us —whero will it drop? Our nerves aro at their highest. It seems to be coming lower as it nears—will .it—will it—ah, she lias gone over and bursts on tho low ground behind us.' Wo avoid the shrapnel from it—another coming—and so "flio life rolls on. I don't wonder at peoplo out here going nuts. Do you? Dear mother, that is one 6ide of the question; another is—to get word that we aro going to shell a town behind tho German lines and lie in the dugout and listen to the shells coming and go on to Fritz, .and a long timo afterwards hear the-explosion. It does one good; as each one passes, someone of us urges it on with some phrase or other.